Sally and I were talking about plants, and I just gave her the fascinating story on turgor pressure. Although...ha ha ha...it just hit me that I've given her many, many lessons in turgor pressure over the years, ha ha. We've all seen time-lapse videos of plants growing and moving and reaching toward the Sun and everything. Turgor pressure is responsible for that. Without searching it I'd describe it as the transfer of water through a cell membrane. It sounds pretty boring maybe but it gets better. I explained it from scratch, so I may not be 100% correct. And no, I am not a real scientist.
Basically it's the process of taking in or expelling water through the cell wall. We tend to think of cells as little tiny squishy balls and mostly that's the case, but they can take on water and seal it in like a balloon. For a time they become pressurized and behave more like bricks than squishy balls. Those bricks become the foundation and allow movement and all the other processes to occur.
Say a vine senses a branch above that it can climb but there's six feet of clear space in between. It's no problem for turgor pressure. When I see those time-lapse things of a vine magically climbing into thin air it reminds me of those "floppy people" you see at store openings and car dealerships. It's a fabric tube with arms and a face. A fan blows air from the bottom which forces it upward. The pressure stiffens the tube and makes it behave more like a solid pipe. You could think of turgor pressure like that I suppose. It could also be thought of as being similar to the "wave" at sports events, where people stand and raise and lower their arms in succession; giving the illusion of a ripple going through the crowd. It could be compared to one of those party favors that unroll and stick out straight and make a funny noise when you blow into it.
When I think of it in terms of the vine climbing in air I think about a giant skyscraper going up. They have a massive crane in the middle, and it makes its own foundation as it climbs. It builds a solid floor above itself and then hoists itself up onto that and then uses it to push upward. Bill Nye could explain it far better I'm sure. It starts at the bottom of the stem. The stem cells take on water and become the foundation bricks, and it continues upward. Water is forced upward and since it can't be compressed it pushes the stem up. As in the "wave" the cells first absorb water to become a foundation and then release it into the cells above; turning them into bricks while they go back to being squishy balls.
Speaking of, it may have occurred to you by now that it's similar to the way a man gets an erection. You hear about the blood vessels relaxing and all, which is true, but it's all a pressure deal. Boner pills work by relaxing blood vessels, as I understand it. It lets more blood flow in, and I also believe that it allows the cells to grow more easily with less pressure; like how champagne bubbles start to form when the cork is popped, but not before. The liquid is sealed under pressure which keeps the CO2 in solution, but then when it's opened and the pressure drops, bubbles form just like balloons being blown up. Isn't that interesting? All men have something in common with, say, a passionflower vine. Some things just naturally want to go up.
There's my science lesson for the day. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something in the process. In case you've never heard, the ways of Nature are infinite and wondrous. When it comes to pressure, turgor is up there with anything. Isn't it funny...basically the same force that can send a vine climbing into thin air without anything to hang onto can also turn a man's unit from a Vienna sausage into a heat-seeking missile, and ten times its original size. Everything is connected. Keep climbing.
